Gun control advocate, Reagan aide Jim Brady passes

FILE - This Jan. 6, 1981 file photo shows President-elect Ronald Reagan introducing James Brady as his press secretary in Washington. Brady, the affable, witty press secretary who survived a devastating head wound in the 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan and undertook a personal crusade for gun control, died Monday. He was 73. (AP Photo/Walt Zebowski, File) (Walt Zebowski)

WASHINGTON -- A major trait that endeared Jim Brady to the Washington press corps was his sense of humor, especially when he made fun of his own boss.

When Ronald Reagan was campaigning for president in 1980, Reagan drew scorn from environmentalists for saying that trees were a greater source of pollution than cars. Aboard the campaign plane, Brady pointed at a forest fire in the distance and yelled, "Killer trees! Killer trees!" to the great amusement of reporters.

After the election, Reagan's advisers appeared hesitant to appoint him press secretary. Nancy Reagan was said to feel the job required someone younger and better-looking than the 40-year-old, moon-faced, balding Brady.

"I come before you today not as just another pretty face but out of sheer talent," Brady told reporters. A week later, he got the job.

Brady, who died Monday at 73, would need humor and much more after March 30, 1981. On that day John Hinckley Jr. attempted to assassinate Reagan outside the Washington Hilton Hotel just two months into the new president's term. Reagan nearly died from a chest wound. Three others, including Brady, were struck by bullets from Hinckley's handgun.

Shot in the head, Brady lived through hours of delicate surgery and then many more operations over the years. But he never recovered the normal use of his limbs and was often in a wheelchair.

Still, along with his wife, Sarah, he went on to become the face and as much as possible the voice of the gun-control movement in the United States. A federal law requiring background checks for handgun buyers bears his name.

Mrs. Reagan, the former first lady, said Monday she was "deeply saddened to learn of Jim Brady's passing today.

FILE- This March 30, 2011 file photo shows former White House press secretary James Brady who was left paralyzed in the Reagan assassination attempt during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington marking the 30th anniversary of the shooting. A Brady family spokeswoman says Brady has died at 73. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File) (Evan Vucci)

Thinking of him brings back so many memories -- happy and sad -- of a time in all of our lives when we learned what it means to ‘play the hand we're dealt."'

The lasting public image of Brady came from the worst day of his life. A news clip of the 1981 shooting, replayed often on television and in documentaries, showed him sprawled on the sidewalk after several Secret Service agents had hustled the wounded president into his limousine and others had pounced on Hinckley.

Although Brady returned to the White House only briefly, a year after the shooting, he was allowed to keep the title of presidential press secretary -- and the $89,500 annual salary as assistant to the president for press relations -- until Reagan left office.

The TV replays did take a toll on Brady. He told The Asso ciated Press years later that he relived the moment each time.

"I want to take every bit of (that) film ... and put them in a cement incinerator, slosh them with gasoline and throw a lighted cigarette in," he said.

Sarah Brady became involved in gun-control efforts in 1985, and later chaired Handgun Control Inc., but Brady took a few more years to join her, and Reagan did not endorse their efforts until 10 years after he was shot. Reagan's surprise endorsement -- he was a longtime National Rifle Association member and an opponent of gun control laws -- helped turn the tide in Congress.

"They're not going to accuse him of being some bed-wetting liberal, no way can they do that," said Brady, who had become an active lobbyist for the bill.

The Brady law required a five-day wait and background check before a handgun can be sold. In November 1993, as President Bill Clinton signed the bill into law, Brady said: "Every once in a while, you need to wake up and smell the propane. I needed to be hit in the head before I started hitting the bricks."

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